[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-25) @ Thunder (26-19) – May 27-29, 2003

Oh come on. We don’t need the Thunder to show us we suck. We know just like that. They did it all with pitching, allowing 3.4 runs per game, while they were scoring just a tiny bit more, but apparently the tenth place offense could still lead a division with appropriate pitching behind it.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (5-2, 2.95 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (4-3, 2.67 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-5, 3.99 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (2-3, 4.10 ERA)
Randy Farley (3-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (5-3, 3.52 ERA)

Hum. Somehow our starting pitching seems even comparable. Then why are lodged into last place in the division (the Elks won on Monday)?

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B M. Ramirez – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Brady – CF Lyon – C Fifield – P Bean
OCT: LF F. Jones – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – CF Humphrey – SS Grant – RF M. Rodriguez – 2B H. Castro – P Armand

Bean was strong the first time through the lineup, facing the minimum on just one hit, but once the fourth inning rolled around, the Thunder led it off with four straight singles to all fields. Bases loaded, no outs, the threat dissipated quickly through no significant contribution by Bean, who didn’t get balls passed people anymore. But Humphrey popped up and Grant hit into the teeth of the defense to get three outs rather quickly. Bean pitched eight innings on exactly 100 pitches, and gave up just that one run driven in by Tomas Cardenas – and was on the losing end of the score. The Raccoons managed three hits through eight, none for extra bases, then faced right-hander Sancho Rivera in the ninth. Palacios hit for Ramirez, still whiffed, and Martin and Reece would not fare much better. 1-0 Thunder. Guerin 2-4; Bean 8.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, L (5-3);

Three singles, two walks. No runs. They didn’t even hack overly badly. Fabien Armand went eight and struck out five. They just made piss poor contact all the time.

Nobody particularly likes Carl Bean around here, but he has deserved better.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Brown
OCT: LF F. Jones – RF Humphrey – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – 2B Kaustrop – C De La Parra – 3B H. Castro – CF Santos – P A. Anderson

The Coons wasted singles by Sharp and Martin in the first when Palacios rolled out to Higashi, who in the bottom 1st would tattoo Brown with a 2-run homer. Brown had nothing – as usual – and in the third gave the game away for good, with three singles wrapped around two walks and that made it a 5-0 game. While Brown would ultimately go six and two thirds and didn’t bleed any more runs, he finished with five walks against just four strikeouts. And the Raccoons? How did they fare? Most poorly. Not only would they just not score, they didn’t even touch second base past the first inning. Not even once. Anderson pitched a 5-hitter, and had to come up with just 95 pitches. 5-0 Thunder. Sharp 2-4; Guerin 2-2, BB;

And just like that, we have a 19-inning scoreless streak going. Way to go, us!

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – LF Moore – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Beairsto – P Farley
OCT: LF F. Jones – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – CF Humphrey – SS Grant – RF Santos – 2B H. Castro – P Trevino

As we all knew, the Raccoons weren’t doing anything, and didn’t plan on ever doing anything again. The Thunder went down silently in the first, before Cardenas rung a double off the wall in rightfield to start the bottom 2nd. The next three Thunder all hit hard flies to the warning track, and all were caught, two by Moore and one by Beairsto. When Cardenas hit a solo home run in the bottom 4th to break a scoreless tie, Farley spun around so quickly on the mound that he strained his calf and had to leave the game. It took the Coons until the sixth inning to reach third base. Down 2-0, Al Martin hit a single that loaded the bases with one out. The Coons ended a 24-inning scoreless skid in style with a run-scoring groundout hit into by Palacios, but then Concie lobbed a fluffy liner over Takahashi Higashi and into shallow left to flip the score with two runs coming home. Boone put the tying run on base in Humphrey right away with a single, but Marcos Bruno cleaned up in the bottom 6th. That 3-2 lead was flimsy as all hell. Wilson got through the seventh, but Martinez allowed a double to Cardenas with one out in the eighth. Moreno popped up Humphrey, but then faced the righty Bob Grant. However, our pen only had Dan Nordahl left, and you really didn’t want to put him in with the tying run already in scoring position. Bob Grant fired a liner that went right into Moreno’s extended glove, and somehow this is how you have to make outs. But Nordahl had to pitch eventually, and then it was still 3-2. He went to a full count on Angel Santos before removing him, also struck out Hector Castro, and then walked Jason Briggs. Here we - … oh, no, we actually got out of this one. Freddie Jones grounded out to Palacios. 3-2 Coons. Moore 2-4; Martin 2-3, BB; Reece (PH) 1-1;

Farley’s calf strain is mild and he will not miss a start. We still used all of our relievers in this game, which is something you never really WANT to do, but fortunately we have another off day after the series in Atlanta.

Raccoons (21-27) @ Knights (21-25) – May 30-June 1, 2003

The Knights have lost six straight, allowing seven or more runs in four of those six games. Might there be an opening for the Raccoons? Overall, their roster is rather balanced, and slightly below average in both pitching and hitting. Yeah, we can still get swept. The Knights took the first series we played this year, 2-1 in their favor.

Projected matchups:
Bob Joly (0-1, 5.35 ERA) vs. John Woodard (6-2, 3.43 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-7, 5.14 ERA) vs. Sadakuno Imamura (0-3, 6.39 ERA)
Carl Bean (5-3, 2.75 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (5-2, 4.42 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – SS Guerin – C Ledesma – CF Lyon – P Joly
ATL: 2B Brantley – SS Luján – LF A. Rodriguez – 1B Tinker – RF J. Garcia – C Vinson – CF Ghiberti – 3B D. Henry – P Woodard

Bill Tinker roughed up Joly in the first, following up Alejandro Rodriguez’ triple with a homer that made it 2-0 in a hurry. The Coons got a run back in the top 2nd when Vinson couldn’t dig out Joly’s 2-out grounder and Reece scored from third base by the time the always-bumbling Vinson got the ball to first base. Scoring died then. The Coons twice put two men on with singles in the next two innings, but failed to plate any, and the Knights left them loaded up in the bottom 4th, the last men on being Doug Henry with an intentional walk, and even then Cal Lyon had to hustle after John Woodard’s fly. Woodard fanned Coons in respectable numbers, K’ing eight in six innings. Then came the seventh, still 2-1 Knights, but then Sharp hit a 1-out single and a suddenly melting Woodard walked both Brady and Palacios, bringing up our best chance to go ahead in Al Martin. Al had not plated somebody so far this week (big wonder with three runs going…), and now only did the bare minimum with a run-scoring groundout. Reece then grounded out against reliever Colby Kirk, keeping two men in scoring position in a 2-2 game. As one could expect, Joly put runners on the corners in the bottom 7th, and got removed for Benton Wilson to pitch to the left-handed batter Rodriguez, but the Knights countered with righty Will Taylor, who walked to load the bases. Manuel Martinez appeared to face Bill Tinker, and got a first-pitch double play grounder to Guerin. In the top 8th we had Guerin and Ledesma on base with no outs, then had Ingall and Moore pinch-hit to absolutely zero effect, and Sharp grounded out as well. Boone faced Jorge Garcia to start the bottom 8th, walked him, and got yanked. Bruno came in, had the defense defeated on a Rodrigo Lopez grounder to left that became an infield single, but then still wiggled out of the inning preserving the tie. Top 9th, Brady made the first out before Palacios singled. Maybe Martin could – no. That brought up Reece. Oh well, maybe we’ll score next month. Then Reece doubled, and Palacios scored, breaking the tie. Nordahl got his pants on and started throwing, and when he appeared in the bottom 9th, he had a 4-2 lead after Guerin had singled home Reece. He faced the top of the order and was done in six pitches. 4-2 Coons! Sharp 2-5; Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI; Guerin 2-5, RBI; Ledesma 2-5;

23 hits combined in this game, and only six runs. 13 hits for us, by the way. What mediocre pitching can do for sub-mediocre batting…

Then, we banished Boone (45 ERA, 10 WHIP) and went to Sergio Vega, who was up and down last year already.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 3B M. Ramirez – C Fifield – CF Beairsto – P Ford
ATL: CF Ghiberti – 2B Brantley – LF R. Lopez – 1B Tinker – RF W. Taylor – C Valadez – SS Luján – 3B Verdon – P Imamura

Ford took to the mound and it went like this: hard contact, hard contact, even harder contact, and the Knights somehow scored only two runs. Facing an all right-handed lineup, Ford was not only struggling, he stunk it up. The Knights would eventually shake seven innings (five earned, two on his own error) out of him in knocking him out in the sixth inning. Tinker hit a 3-run homer. The Raccoons amounted to all but two hits through six against the pushover Imamura. At 7-0 the game was long decided when the Inepticoons loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth. And then Imamura and Bartolo Gomez held the Coons to one run, and the two runs that scored on pinch-hit base knocks in the ninth were meaningless as well. 7-3 Knights. Sharp (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ingall (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Moore (PH) 1-2;

Time to ask for donations. We’re in dire need of hits and runs. And some good luck. And someone to rejuvenate Neil Reece.

Game 3
POR: 1B Sharp – SS Guerin – 3B M. Ramirez – RF Brady – LF Reece – 2B Ingall – CF Beairsto – C Fifield – P Bean
ATL: CF Ghiberti – SS Luján – LF A. Rodriguez – 1B Tinker – RF J. Garcia – C Valadez – 2B J. Gutierrez – 3B D. Henry – P Cutts

Garcia scored after hitting a double to lead off the bottom 2nd and the Knights were up 1-0, and the Coons were trailing again, and trailing early again. They had one hit in four innings before Fifield hit a double to start our half of the fifth. Bean singled, putting the runs to flip the score onto the corners, and then Cutts lost Sharp to a walk. Bases loaded, no outs, and the Coons wouldn’t score when Guerin grounded to third to get Fifield nailed at home, Ramirez fouled out, and Brady hit a grounder to short. Morally, they were conceding defeat at every opportunity. Every opportunity wrapped up every inning from there through the eighth. After eight, it was still 1-0 for the Knights, as Bean was on the way to take his second well-pitched loss of the week. The ninth, Manuel Reyes pitching to Jorge Defrese, and if an ex-Coons battery wasn’t opening possibilities! Ingall led off with a single, before Moore hit for a chronically successless Beairsto, but flew out. Fifield whiffed, but we still had an ace up our sleeve, hitting Al Martin for Carl Bean. He lacked oomph right now, but singled to keep the line moving to the top of the order and Danny Sharp. 1-1 pitch, uh, that one was up. And not deep at all. And there is Gutierrez. And it’s in his glove. 1-0 Knights. Martin (PH) 1-1; Bean 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, L (5-4) and 1-2;

Daniel Sharp and Larry Cutts… Sharp Cutts?

Makes sense.

In other news

May 28 – The Canadiens are 3-hit, 6-0, by LVA Anibal Sandoval (6-4, 2.90 ERA).
May 30 – 33-year old TOP OF Paul Theobald (.341, 1 HR, 33 RBI) figures to miss the rest of the season with a concussion.

Complaints and stuff

(slumped over the table, moaning)

Well. We know how Kisho Saito occasionally would not get run support at all. “At all” then constituted one or two runs a game for a month. Carl Bean would have been a winner twice this week with two runs a game. He has started 11 games this year, has received less than two runs of support five times, and ZERO in three of his last four starts. He gets 3.1 R/G overall.

As if we’re not getting enough kicks into the nuts, Bryce Hildred was named CL Pitcher of the Month. Oh come on, world! Ain’t there no justice!!??

Vince took away Neil Reece’s centerfield rating and strongly advised me against using him anywhere but left or first. Well, there’s no room at first, except maybe against left-handed pitching during a long stretch of games.

Centerfield is an issue for the first time in about 15 years. We can pick between an adept fielder not hitting anything (Torrez, Lyon, Beairsto, pick your poison), or an adept hitter not fielding (Moore, Reece, Brady). Yay, lucky us!

It's like that closer we've been looking for for going on ten years now.