[Westheim]

Our AAA team is playing .368 ball. There is no reason to expect any help to come from there any time soon. Still, it was September 1 and the chance was there to add some meat to make it through the last five weeks of the season. We needed a reliever anyway with Marcos Bruno getting shut down, packed up, and put on the DL.

Called up were:
MR Scott Boone, 23, with a 1.34 ERA in AAA, and that pretty 45 ERA for the big league team
MR Lawrence Rockburn, 23, with a 4.62 ERA in AAA, international signing by the Thunder, and came over in the fabled Butch Kaustrop trade
MR Kazuhiko Kichida, who didn’t get the knack in AAA either
C/1B Gary Fifield, batting .292 with three homers in just 24 AB in AAA
1B Alejandro Rojas, 23, .863 OPS with 27 homers in AAA, international free agent from Costa Rica dug out by Vince

Raccoons (61-70) vs. Condors (65-66) – September 1-3, 2003

The Condors were average in scoring and preventing runs. Like all those .500 teams in the CL South, they were quite in the thick of contention.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (10-5, 3.39 ERA) vs. Ramón Ortíz (11-9, 3.71 ERA)
Edgar Amador (3-5, 4.13 ERA) vs. Frank Pierre (8-9, 3.86 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (5-3, 3.46 ERA) vs. Manny Rios (12-9, 3.76 ERA)

Game 1
TIJ: 1B Morton – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – LF Reya – 3B B. Boyle – C Clemente – CF B. Román – 2B Stein – P R. Ortíz
POR: RF Brady – SS Ingall – LF Reece – CF Beairsto – 1B Rojas – C Thomas – 3B M. Ramirez – 2B Love – P Farley

For a change, Mr. Singles surrendered plenty of extra-base contact in this start, which couldn’t go unpunished for long. Both teams scored two runs in the third inning, with the Condors’ coming on a pair of doubles, giving them three doubles and a single that far in. They added a Bruce Boyle homer to that in the top 4th, but in the bottom of the inning Clyde Brady came through with a 2-out, 2-run double, giving the Coons the lead at 4-3, and Mark Thomas’ 2-out double in the next inning plated another run in scoring Neil Reece. It wasn’t enough to drag Farley through this game however. On a day of doubles, and 2-out doubles in particular, Jim Stein’s 2-out double in the top 6th tied the score at five as it scored both Boyle and Antonio Clemente. That was nothing against what the bullpen did. Benton Wilson faced two, and Manuel Martinez one batter in the top 7th, nobody was retired, and the bases were loaded. Domingo Moreno replaced Martinez and somehow got out of the inning with only one run scoring, but it was the go-ahead run, and that was bad enough. Bottom 7th, Nick Lee pitching. He struck out Reece to get going, before Beairsto singled. Rojas was hitless in his debut, which ended here to have Al Martin hit against the right-hander. The Condors stayed with Lee, and it cost them, for Martin hit it out, #22. The inning continued, but eventually Pablo Ledesma struck out to leave two men on base.

That put the Raccoons in a bad predicament. Ledesma had hit for Moreno. We now had expended both our good left-handed relievers. Now it was Bob Joly against the left-handed Condors, or Scott Boone, the guy with the ERA just under room temperature. Tough choice, but it was Boone with the 7-6 lead. For how long can one pitch with a 45 ERA?

Boone struck out Román, and Stein flew out to Beairsto in left (Reece was gone), but Boone then walked Bradley Heathershaw in his first plate appearance of the year. Huerta replaced Boone and got Mitsuhide Suzuki to ground out to short. We wanted to stay away from Dan Nordahl, who had been out most days last week, and Huerta continued in the ninth in the 7-6 game, with easily measurable success. Jimmy Bayle singled, and then Luis Reya doubled with one out. Boyle was walked intentionally, but the Condors managed to throw up another power hitter to pinch-hit in Jeff MacGruder. We saw this game swimming down the Willamette, and then MacGruder grounded the second pitch right back to Huerta, who fired home to force Bayle, and Thomas zinged to first to get MacGruder. 7-6 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 2-4, RBI; Beairsto 2-4, RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

That surely was too close for comfort...

Rojas walked his first time up, then made two outs, so no ball for the mantelpiece of Mama Rojas so far. He will make a few starts against left-handers this month. The Coons are not running for anything anyway, and Al Martin is still five off Ron Alston in the CL home run race (and a mere dozen behind LAP Ken Potter in the FL), so he’s not playing for anything big either. Except, if he hits three more, he will reach 100 for his career. That one might go on Mama Martin’s mantelpiece, I guess.

Game 2
TIJ: C Cicalina – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – LF Reya – 3B B. Boyle – 1B Morton – CF MacGruder – 2B Stein – P Pierre
POR: CF Torrez – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Ingall – C Thomas – 2B Love – P Amador

By the time Edgar Amador surrendered Raúl Vázquez 385th career home run, he had already surrendered a few doubles, not quite living up to his groundball percentage. Both teams plated a run in the first, with a 3-on, 2-out Ingall Single doing the job for the Coons. Amador wobbled, Pierre didn’t quite. The Condors scored a run in the fourth to go ahead and when Vázquez then took Amador deep in the fifth, it was a 4-1 game. Amador had walked Juan Barrón just before #385. In the bottom 5th the Condors had to fight their own little blemishes, with Torrez at first striking out to start the inning, but wait – they called catcher’s interference. Torrez then scored casually when Clyde Brady tripled, 4-2, and Neil Reece became the tying run with an RBI single to collect Brady. That tying run never actually tied the score, however, when Martin got Reece forced out with a grounder to first, and an Ingall Single evaporated when Thomas popped out. But the team DID come back. Torrez singled in the bottom 6th, and then Brady upped his output by a base with a rocket to deep right that stayed just inside the pole to flip the score to 5-4! This was with Amador still in the game, but he would not register another out, allowing a single to Urbano Cicalina and then fumbling Juan Barrón’s bunt and throwing wildly to second base. But Moreno came in to deny the Condors any advance, and the lead stood up, and was extended in the bottom 7th when all the Coons did was Marvin Ingall drawing a 2-out walk and then not tripping and breaking a leg during a sequence of wild pitch – balk – passed ball. Frank Pierre and Urbano Cicalina clearly were not in sync! Pierre remained in the game until Matt Love singled in the bottom 8th. Love became the seventh run on Pierre’s ledger (sixth earned) once Eddie Torrez went deep against Jared Chaney to make it 8-4. With that, Nordahl remained in the stall again, and Bob Joly pitched a perfect ninth. 8-4 Coons! Torrez 4-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4, BB, HR, 3B, 3 RBI; Reece 2-5, RBI; Ingall 2-3, BB, RBI; Moreno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We’re really struggling to form a proper lineup against left-handed pitchers with Guerin and Sharp on the DL. However, they have scored 15 runs the last two games, so maybe we shouldn’t complain. Next is a righty, though.

Oh, and we’ve got a 5-game winning streak!

Game 3
TIJ: C Cicalina – SS J. Barrón – RF R. Vázquez – CF Luxton – 3B B. Boyle – 1B Morton – LF B. Román – 2B Stein – P M. Rios
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – P F. Garcia

While Felipe Garcia struck out four the first time through the Condors’ order, the Raccoons put Torrez and Palacios onto the corners in the bottom 1st before the heart of the order broke some hearts with three poor outs and nobody scored. When Palacios mishandled Raúl Vázquez grounder for an error in the third inning, it led to an unearned sac fly hit by Robbie Luxton for the first run in the game, but the score would be evened again quickly when Torrez homered in the bottom of the inning. That one was a leadoff jack, and Ledesma made it back-to-back innings with leadoff jacks in the fourth, giving the Raccoons a 2-1 lead. The fifth began again with Torrez, but he didn’t hit it out, though he reached with a single to center. At this point, Manny Rios just stopped to retire batters. Palacios singled, Brady singled, Martin singled and scored two. Reece still had two men on and got a pretty fat pitch. Neil was suffering from old age, but he clearly saw that 1-0 pitch coming right down Broadway, and an instant later, that ball went where nobody could see it again: OUT OF THE PARK!! That made it 7-1 Coons, and Rios went for an early shower. Garcia also went only six, but without surrendering an earned run. The score was 8-1 after Brady drove in Torrez in the bottom 6th, and the top 7th saw the debut in the Bigs for Lawrence Rockburn. He surrendered a single to his first ever big league batter, Bartolo Román, but Jim Stein hit into a double play and his first inning remained scoreless once MacGruder rolled out to second. It was Kichida’s turn in the eighth. He walked Barrón, but struck out Vázquez, and nobody scored, either. 8-1 Critters! Torrez 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Palacios 3-5; Ledesma 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Garcia 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-3);

Six in a row! Our run differential, that was over -70 (or rather under -70) at one point last month is now back to -16 and we’re only six under .500. You know, it’s bad for drafting, but I would REALLY dig to end that string of losing seasons. It’s been TOO LONG.

Well, *technically* we are not yet mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, so maybe we …? Ha-hah, joking (choking?).

Raccoons (64-70) vs. Indians (67-66) – September 4-7, 2003

Four versus Indy, who were scoring the fourth-most runs in the CL despite the third-worst batting average. They also had the fourth-least runs allowed around. It was not enough to even stay close to the powering Titans and Loggers, though. Against the Indians, it has been a disaster for the Raccoons so far this year, winning only three of 11 contests that have taken place already. Half the losses were by one run, the last three of which came in that dreadful series in early August, where we lost 2-1, 1-0, and 2-1 in succession.

Projected matchups:
Ramón Meza (3-6, 5.23 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (5-6, 2.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-12, 3.70 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (14-10, 3.62 ERA)
Randy Farley (10-5, 3.55 ERA) vs. Kai Edwards (2-6, 6.29 ERA)
Edgar Amador (4-5, 4.26 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-7, 4.06 ERA)

Hamilton is the third left-hander we get this week. Might be a good spot for another start for Alejandro Rojas before we face three more right-handed pitchers.

Game 1
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – CF J. Valdez – 1B Booker – 3B Harris – P Hamilton
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Rojas – SS Gabriel – C Fifield – P Meza

Meza gave up on the 6-game winning streak just like that, allowing six straight base runners with two outs in the second inning, resulting in four runs. Meza allowed only three more runners in six innings, but the result was bad enough. While Ingall hit a solo homer in the third inning, he left three men stranded in the fourth when he grounded out to Hamilton. Miguel Ramirez then hit a 2-run homer collecting Reece in the fifth, but the team still trailed 4-3. Rojas made an out after that. Rojas already had a single in his first AB of the day, netting him that vaunted mantelpiece exhibit, but he didn’t know then that he would take home another one, and it was a big one: Miguel Ramirez reached base with a soft pop that fell into shallow center in the bottom 7th. That brought up Rojas, facing Maximo Mendez, and Rojas unloaded to left for his first big league home run, this one flipping the score in favor of the Coons, 5-4! Jesus Alvarez hit a leadoff double off Ricardo Huerta in the eighth. Huerta was in line for the W after collecting the last out in the seventh, but it was about to run away from him again. Alvarez was on third base with two out, when the Indians brought lefty slugger Matt MacKey as pinch-hitter in the #8 hole. Moreno replaced Huerta and got a pop right to Ingall to end the inning. The Coons left two on base in the bottom 8th, leaving no cushion for Dan Nordahl, but it was all right, as Nordahl struck out two and got an easy grounder to short from David Mendez in between. 5-4 Coons. Torrez 2-5; Reece 2-4, BB; Ramirez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Rojas 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Martin (PH) 1-1;

Seven in a row!

Game 2
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – CF J. Valdez – 1B Booker – 3B Harris – P Alba
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – P Brown

Messy game. Brown allowed singles to Mendez and Stevens out of the gate, then walked Ron Alston. A nifty double play started by Palacios eventually held the damage to one run, the defense bloked out the next two innings, leading to an unearned run in the second on an error by Manny Gabriel. Brown’s stuff wasn’t biting, and the Raccoons went 0-9 the first time through the order. Manuel Alba sat down the first ten Critters before Palacios singled, and Brady walked. Beairsto would drive in a run with a 2-out single, but Ledesma left two men on base when he popped out to second. Beairsto’s run was given back by Brown right away. He just didn’t have it, neither the stuff, nor the luck, as Tom Turner’s bloop fell into shallow right to score Mendez from third base with two outs in the fifth. Brownie went six innings whiffing seven, but trailed 3-2 going into the bottom 6th. Brady singled, and Martin lined one to left center that Alvarez tried to catch in a slide, but missed entirely for a double. That put Brady and Martin in scoring position with no outs, but the Coons were held to a sac fly by Ledesma and that was all they did for Brown, who got a no-decision. In the top 8th, Martinez laid two eggs that Moreno had to hatch, facing Phil Montray with two out, and got him to pop out really not far from home plate. Brady hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth, but nobody could be bothered to score him, with Martin and Ledesma striking out against right-handed pitcher Terry Harris, and Beairsto grounded out between them. The tie was then resolved in the ninth to the home team’s disadvantage. It was not a good matchup in the first place, but Ron Alston hit a MONSTROUS home run off Bob Joly to end the Coons’ winning streak. 5-3 Indians. Torrez 2-4, RBI; Brady 2-3, BB, 2B;

No, Bob Joly shouldn’t pitch to Ron Alston. That was … that was a bad mistake. Alston is a mashing robot who can hit the ball 600 feet, and Joly essentially works like a tee. That is quite insulting. To the tee.

Harrumph. Well, we can always start a new winning streak tomorrow. (laughs)

Game 3
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – C Paraz – CF Cavazos – RF C. Rey – LF MacKey – 2B Kilters – SS W. Walker – P K. Edwards
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Reece – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Gabriel – C Thomas – P Farley

More messy defense, with Chris Kilters’ lazy grounder thrown away by Mark Thomas in the second inning. That was with two outs and Farley managed to strike out Wilton Walker, so no harm was done to the efforts on this Saturday yet. Miguel Ramirez homered in the bottom 2nd to put the Critters up 1-0, and after singles by Torrez and Palacios and Brady hitting an RBI double they had a 2-0 lead and two in scoring position in the bottom 3rd, before a most depressing stretch of plays left the runners stranded, as Martin popped out, Reece struck out, and Ramirez popped out as well. Two runs would probably not be enough in this game, with Farley not giving up singles, but lots of high flies. One of those went out in the fourth, as Cavazos homered just over the fence in right. It was Ramiro’s 10th on the year. With the Raccoons struggling against Kai Edwards (6+ ERA…), Farley gave up enough contact for a second run sooner or later and that happened in the sixth, when the Indians tied the score. In the bottom 6th, Wilton Walker’s throw to first on Reece’s grounder was way off and into the stands, and that gave the Coons a man on second with no outs. Ramirez singled, moving Reece to third, Gabriel walked, bases loaded, and still no outs. And they failed again. Thomas flew out to shallow right. Beairsto hit for Farley and merely managed a slightly deeper out to allow Reece to tag and score, and Torrez lobbed out to left. The bullpen blew it again, with Boone pitching a scoreless seventh, but allowing a single to lefty Montray atop the eighth. Martinez came in and was taken deep by Jose Paraz, and another run was conceded by Kichida in the ninth. Iemitsu Rin did the dirty work in the bottom 9th just like the day before. 5-3 Indians. Palacios 2-4; Ramirez 2-4, HR, RBI;

I really don’t know what it is with the Indians. We’re now 4-10 against them. That’s Loggers and Titans territory.

Maybe it’s Marv! He is 2-for-29 against the Arrowheads this year.

Game 4
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – C Bowen – RF J. Lugo – SS Kilters – P Jimenez
POR: CF Torrez – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – 3B Ingall – SS Gabriel – C Ledesma – P Amador

2-for-29 foreshadowed the bottom 1st, where Ingall came to bat with one out, the bags choked, and a 1-0 lead. He lined hard to deep left – and Ron Alston made the play. It was a sac fly, still, but 999 times out of 1,000 this one would fall in for three runs. The Coons scored three total in the inning, batting through the order until Amador grounded out to short to keep the score at 3-0. The Indians missed a chance to score in the second when Cavazos hit a leadoff double, but amassed hits and a walk to score two runs off Amador in the fourth. The Coons responded with loading them up in the bottom of the inning, with one out, for Al Martin, who sat at 98 RBI. This would be a nice spot for two, Al. NO, NOT for a double pla- … hnnngghhh. In response to that, the Indians just broke through Amador and our overwhelmed defense with a bunch of singles, an Amador error, a David Mendez grand slam - … in short, a nightmare, and we had all but booked a 3-game losing streak with a 6-run fifth.

However… there were still five innings to bat in for the Raccoons despite an 8-3 deficit. And all week long the ball had been carrying like crazy in Raccoons Ballpark, and this wouldn’t stop, and this played into the cards of the home team: by the seventh, the Raccoons led 9-8! Ledesma homered in the fifth, Reece homered in the sixth, and Ledesma hit another one in the seventh! And then came Moreno for the eighth – and served up a leadoff homer to Tom Turner. Well, maybe the wind would benefit the better team after all? In which case, congrats Indians. They overcame the crappy Raccoons bullpen in the ninth, where Huerta allowed two singles, Boone drilled MacKey, and Nordahl surrendered two runs on a single by Juan Valdez. Iemitsu Rin was tired of the non-challenge and the Indians sent Terry Harris in the ninth. It didn’t matter. It was a 1-2-3, even if the bat boy would have been sent to pitch. 11-9 Indians. Torrez 3-5, BB; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Beairsto 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Gabriel 2-5, RBI; Ledesma 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Wilson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 2 – BOS CL John Bennett (3-2, 1.38 ERA, 41 SV) notches his 300th career save with conserving the Titans’ 7-4 lead over the Falcons.

Complaints and stuff

Just when the mood began to be lightened up a little bit in Coon City, we run into these goddamn Indians again, and BAM – losing streak.

Well, it’s not like these suckers could have actually finished with a winning record. ****ing losers.

Neil Reece’s homer off Maximo Mendez on Sunday leaves him 15 hits shy of the franchise mark. In passing, the ultimately irrelevant home run also was his 168th and tied him for third for the Raccoons with Tetsu Osanai. Tetsu also holds down 3rd in RBI with 865, and Neil is off by eight. Mark Dawson is only four ribbies further ahead, but Dan The Man’s franchise mark in that category looks very safe: 980.

Of course the ball was flying frantically this week. In seven games, we got to see 20 homers, and of those there were even 65% hit by the home team! Since we got a bit dizzy along the way, those were our dinger hitters this week:
3 – Ledesma
2 – Torrez, Ramirez, Reece
1 – Martin, Brady, Ingall, Rojas

Once Al Martin hit the pinch-dinger on Monday, Vince upped him to 1.5 stars. There really is something at odds between these two…

By the way, everybody not liking Chris Beairsto’s scouting report (10/16/12), will absolutely hate Miguel Ramirez’: 8/11/11; despite that, the Raccoons have some shocking young power going. To put it this way: if Ramirez would still qualify for the rookie title (he had 162 AB between 2001 and 2002), the Raccoons would account for a 3-way tie between rookie-eligible players for the home run lead in the league, with Ramirez, Torrez, and Beairsto all having 13.

Torrez’ scouting report? 12/11/13. Not quite the younger Reece, but good enough, to be honest. AND it was good enough to win Player of the Week honors! He hit .481 (13-27) with 2 HR and 5 RBI to get the honors.

And our accountant handed this one in: regarding our free agents Palacios, Wilson, Moreno, and Ingall … our money available for extensions is zero.