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Westheim · 05-26-2015, 09:52 PM

Raccoons (69-75) @ Indians (73-70) – September 16-18, 2003

Third in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed – and yet the Indians played out the string in mid-September. In this they didn’t distinguish themselves much from the perennially fruitless Raccoons, whom they had clobbered at a .733 pace this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-12, 3.80 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (14-10, 3.46 ERA)
Randy Farley (11-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (5-6, 2.85 ERA)
Edgar Amador (5-5, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-8, 4.68 ERA)

With an off day on Monday, the unreliable (to say the least) Ramón Meza was skipped. We have no more weeks without off days so this might become a semi-permanent arrangement until the end of the season. Maybe we will sneak in Bob Joly at one point. Nobody in AAA really deserves a shot. Or might survive one.

Game 1
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Brown
IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – 1B Booker – CF Mendoza – 3B Harris – P Alba

The Furballs got a running start when Torrez walked and Sharp hit a bomb that bent around the inside of the foul pole in left – fair by a whisker. Brownie reached 200 strikeouts on the season in the fourth inning, fanning Tom Turner, but by then had been taken deep twice already, by Robbie Harris and Ron Alston, after initially retiring the first six Indians in the game. An infield single by callup Ricardo Mendoza got the Indians started in the bottom 3rd, and the game was tied at three after four innings. A similar spectacle gave the Indians the win in this one in the seventh, although then Brown – in the process of melting down – hit Mendoza with an errant 3-0 pitch before Harris homered in a full count, leaving Brown with seven strikeouts and five runs conceded in six and two thirds. The Raccoons left the bases loaded in the top 8th when Palacios flew out to Alvarez, and in the bottom of the inning Scott Boone retired nobody, with another run scoring. 6-3 Indians. Sharp 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-4;

Beairsto struck out twice, but managed a single, stitching an 11-game hitting streak together. Not bad for a swing-and-miss guy.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Rojas – CF Moore – C Thomas – P Farley
IND: 3B Montray – RF C. Rey – LF Alston – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – 1B Kilters – C Bowen – SS Stevens – P Hamilton

Beairsto got to 12 games in a hurry, giving the Raccoons 2-run homers in the top 1st in back-to-back games, here collecting Concie who had doubled. Quickly it became apparent that Randy had arrived without his best (and then still limited) stuff, and that his control was at times troubled. The Indians got a run off him in the first before the teams settled into a 2-1 slog in which neither team could land a blow for an extended period of time. The Coons would surprisingly score next after not reaching third base for four innings, but in the sixth Ramirez got on with a walk, took a base when Hamilton balked, and scored on Moore’s double. Moore was then thrown out at home trying to score on Mark Thomas’ single. The Indians got their first two men, Rey and Alston, on with singles in the bottom 6th but again couldn’t get through Farley. The score remained 3-1 in favor of the Critters, who then broke through Maximo Mendez in the top 7th. RBI doubles by Reece for one, and Rojas for two runs opened the score to 6-1, but four 2-out base runners not only chased Farley in the bottom 7th but also plated a run before finally ex-Coon Cavazos popped out to short and saved us (and Farley and Moreno) from more heartbreak. Neil Reece drove in another run with two out in the eighth, singling in Matt Love, who had walked after entering in the double switch that removed Randy from the game, but Bob Joly coughed up a homer to .191 batting Craig Bowen in the bottom of the inning. Disaster still loomed large over the visitors’ dugout, 7-3 score or not. Indeed, the entirely insufficient Scott Boone meeting up with Ron Alston resulted in another homer to finally create a save chance for Dan Nordahl, which he converted with a K to David Mendez. 7-4 Coons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Reece 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rojas 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Thomas 2-5; Farley 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (12-5) and 1-3;

To compare Brownie’s and Randy’s stuff: the former has 202 K, and the latter not even 100 this year (96). Brown has spun 13 more innings.

Game 3
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Amador
IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 2B D. Mendez – CF J. Lugo – RF MacKey – SS Stevens – P Jimenez

Again, the Raccoons took the first lead of the night on a home run, but this time it didn’t come until the third inning, but also counted for three when Al Martin sent a no-doubt rocket to center and beyond. Amador again worked his way down to a 4.00 ERA before something bad happened, in this case Jose Paraz’ leadoff jack in the bottom 4th. In the sixth, we left the bases loaded when Sharp grounded out after scoring one run on a Ledesma single, but that run came right back from Amador when Ron Alston continued to treat our staff as punching bags and homered to left center, 4-2. Top 7th, Brady led off with a double, followed by three singles to score Brady and load them up. Jimenez remained in the game, popped up Palacios, and Ledesma hit into a double play. Gah. To make up for that annoyance, the Indians put two on in the bottom 7th, knocking out Amador with one out, with Benton Wilson coming in, only to walk Phil Montray. Jesus Alavarez hit for Mike Jones, but hit into a double play. Well, it DOES happen to every team! Top 8th, Maximo Mendez pitching, Ingall singled, Torrez singled, Reece walked. No outs! No hits were coming forth from here, but at least Brady walked, and Martin and Beairsto both had run-scoring outs. Up by six, Huerta pitched a scoreless eighth and then we were mentally ready to give Kichida another chance to get that 12-ish ERA down in the ninth. Three up, three down, and a K to Bowen to end it. 8-2 Furballs! Torrez 2-4, BB; Brady 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Guerin 3-5, 2B; Ingall (PH) 1-2;

Al Martin of course hit his 100th major league home run. He took 2,197 AB to get there, OPS’ing .826 along the way.

Raccoons (71-76) @ Thunder (76-70) – September 19-21, 2003

The Thunder tied the Falcons for the CL South lead, so we could expect fierce resistance to our attempts at taking this series. The Thunder had taken four of six from us so far, and they were still scoring the least runs in the league. In a way you had to be rooting for the Falcons, because a team so inept at run scoring shouldn’t make the playoffs! Their pitching was phenomenal, though, conceding less than 3.8 runs per game, second best in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (6-4, 3.61 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (13-12, 3.59 ERA)
Bob Joly (2-8, 4.20 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (12-10, 3.65 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-13, 3.90 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (9-11, 3.64 ERA)

Marcos Bruno rejoined us from the DL, and Sergio Vega could also come back for a cameo in a few days, and then we should run out of chairs in the bullpen.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – 2B Love – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia
OCT: LF F. Jones – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – CF Olson – P Armand

To put it simply, Felipe Garcia was hit by a Greyhound and dragged all the way to Omaha, NE. The first four Thunder all hit the ball hard, hit it deep, and Tomas Cardenas’ 3-run dinger made it 4-0 for them before Garcia registered a single out. Garcia didn’t get out of the second inning, with three more hard hits off him, and when Kaz Kichida came in he had nothing better to do than giving up another RBI triple to Takahashi Higashi. 7-1 Thunder after two, this one had gotten out of hand quickly against THE WORST OFFENSIVE TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. At least Kichida saved his ham by going into the sixth inning, allowing one more run on the way, but it wasn’t like it still mattered. At that point, Beairsto and Thomas were the only Raccoons with a hit, manufacturing their lone run in the second inning. When Neil Reece singled in the eighth, the Thunder seemed to fear a comeback from 9-1 and went to their pen which quickly quelled the insurgency. 9-1 Thunder. Beairsto 1-2, BB; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Kichida 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

Well, that was unpleasant. And next is Joly’s spot start. (laughs madly)

Game 2
POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Joly
OCT: CF Olson – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – LF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – RF Rangel – P Higgins

Joly was more or less in the game since a pitcher was mandatory by the rule book. If the Thunder had played tee ball, the difference would have been small. Joly surrendered nine hits in 3.2 innings, which miraculously only amounted to two runs for the Thunder, before leaving with an injury, possibly due to split ends. The game was a copy of Friday’s. The Raccoons did nothing, the Thunder hit every which way, although they left runners on base in droves this time and led only 3-0 after seven. It took not one, but TWO errors by the Thunder to get the Coons into the game at all. Moore led off, and Burton Scott threw his grounder away. Torrez made an out, Sharp singled, and then Brady’s perfect double play serving was thrown away by Bob Grant. That made it 3-1 and runners on first and second with one out for the menacing left-handers, with righty Vaughn Higgins still pitching. Martin struck out, and Beairsto rolled one to short. A third error was too much to ask for. 3-1 Thunder. Torrez 2-4;

Bob Joly had a sore wrist, and we would not speculate over where that came from. Perhaps serving up too many gopherballs.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Brown
OCT: CF Santos – RF Rangel – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – 2B Kaustrop – C De La Parra – LF M. Rodriguez – 3B Scott – P L. Martinez

Brady robbed the hovering demon Butch Kaustrop of a 2-run double to end the bottom 1st of what early on figured to become another long and dreadful night for Raccoons pitching as Brown failed to find the strike zone. In the second, Brown hit both leadoff man Antonio De La Parra AND the opposing pitcher, Luis Martinez, but the Thunder still didn’t score. The Coons loaded them up in the top 3rd, one out, for Neil Reece. The old war horse, who had recently turned 37, lobbed a soft line over a leaping Higashi into shallow right to score the first run of the game. The line kept moving: Martin singled, 2-0, Brady walked, 3-0, and Ingall managed a sac fly to right, 4-0. That didn’t make Brownie any better, though. When he whiffed Grant in the third, it was his first K on the day, for the second out in the inning. He immediately walked Higashi, and it was Sharp with a fantastic grab on Kaustrop’s sharp line drive to end the inning. The boy needs a W. Maybe we could nurse him through five somehow. Just as that thought hushed into our minds, Brown got good, retired the Thunder in order over the next two frames, striking out three, and hardly missed. He was brought back for the sixth – and sucked. Three hits scored a run for the Thunder, and Manuel Martinez replaced him and got out of the inning. The Raccoons were more or less idle in the top halves of innings until the eighth, when they got a few singles. Brady had one, and after Ingall failed to bunt twice, he singled on a 1-2 pitch by Cris Pena. Torrez made an out, but Mark Thomas singled up the middle and scored Brady. One more run would score on a groundout by Concie, making it a 6-1 game with six outs to collect. Predictably, the bullpen crumbled. Sergio Vega struck out Alberto Rangel, then put two on. Marcos Bruno came in, and couldn’t get it done AT ALL. The runners scored, and there were two more on after Bruno had also balked and thrown a wild pitch. Domingo Moreno didn’t help, allowing 2-out RBI single to Joey Humphrey that made it 6-4. Nordahl to the rescue, facing PH Brian Camphell, and ANOTHER grounder through on the left side, scoring the fourth run of the inning. Rangel then flew out to Torrez. GODDAMNIT!!! Of course it wasn’t over! There was still a ninth inning, and that was led off by Bob Grant with a home run. Nordahl, the useless ****, loaded the bases while also striking out three in the inning, and we got to play extras for extra “yay, Raccoons baseball!”.

Top 10th, Ingall and Torrez got on with no outs, leading to Thomas bunting into a force at third. Palacios hit into a double play, and Martin and Higashi left runners on the corners in the 11th. Guerin grounded out to end the 12th with two on. By that point, we were out of pitchers. It was either Meza or Boone. Boone was a sure loss, and Meza was a sure loss, too. Meza came in, Jason Briggs led off with a single, tried to get to second, but Eddie Torrez threw him out. Meza walked two, but the Thunder didn’t finish him off, but in turn Meza killed the top 13th with a room service bunt to get Reece tagged out.

Bottom 13th. Butch Kaustrop grounded to second, and beat out Palacios’ throw to second. Antonio Ayala bunted and was safe at first. Meza walked Marcos Rodriguez. Three on, no outs. Burton Scott grounded right in front of the plate, where Thomas made the play himself for a force of Kaustrop at home. Jason Briggs popped out to shallow right to Brady, and Ayala tagged, but didn’t go. Meza then struck out Marshall Lyons. Oh my god, it goes on. The Thunder had a 2-out single and walk off Meza in the bottom 14th when he struck out Joe Watkins, 29, in his first major league AB, to get out of that one.

Top 15th. Concie led off with a walk off Ricardo Contreras and made it to second on a hit-and-run with Rojas grounding to short. That brought up Reece. He was 4-6 on the day, finding ways to sneak singles through on the left side. Contreras didn’t get him at 1-2, but Reece singled to left, and Concie ran, ran, ran and was safe at home to break a 6-6 tie that should have been broken years ago. Ledesma hit for Meza, doubled, and Brady was walked intentionally to load them up for Ingall. C’mon, Marv! Give us one! Nope, Marv grounded out, and Torrez lined out to left. Now our options in the 7-6 game were Boone, an ailing Joly, a much-used Rockburn, or Monday’s starter, Randy Farley. That was a decision nobody wanted to make, but we had right-handers due up, and … oh … oh what to do?

Rockburn came out, and we had a feeling of death approaching. Rodriguez lined the first pitch into right, where Brady made a hero’s play. Burton Scott was 2-2 when he lined hard to the left side – CONCIE!!! The second mad catch of the inning, now what could go wrong with Jason Briggs!? He walked. And when Lyons shot a ball into the gap in left center, there were no heroes left. Briggs scored. Rangel grounded out to Guerin to fall to 0-8 on the day, but it was just not … it was … a-aah…

Top 16th! And Farley was warming up, because Boone and Joly were sure losses. Unless we’d plate six or so. We didn’t plate any, and what did we say about sure losses? Farley didn’t retire anybody. Grant singled, Higashi tripled, ballgame. 8-7 Thunder. Guerin 2-6, 3 BB, RBI; Reece 5-7, BB, 2 RBI; Ledesma (PH) 1-1, 2B; Thomas 4-7, BB, 2B, RBI;

Box score: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3874012

Stupid bunch of decrepit ****s.

Both teams left 22 on base. We used 12 pitchers. The voices tell me to ram a knife into my own neck to make the pain stop.

In other news

September 15 – The Stars concede defeat and send 28-year old 1B Mac Woods (.291, 37 HR, 93 RBI) to the Loggers along with a scrub for … 1B/3B/RF Vitantonio Cavalleri (.259, 1 HR, 13 RBI)???
September 17 – The Buffaloes would have loved to have CL Arthur Joplin (4-2, 0.55 ERA, 23 SV) down the road, but the 30-year old southpaw has to be shut down with elbow inflammation and is out for the season.

Complaints and stuff

Well, I guess the Loggers just got better? That trade is a steal. Congrats to GM Leland French. His Texan trade partner should be institutionalized, though.

We finish the year 6-12 against the Indians, matching the low mark from 1990. Given that we lost the season series only once between ’91 and ’01 (ironically in ’96), they must have something to counter us, but I don’t know what. There was a time a few years back when we’d always suck out against the Titans. Back then I identified their left-handed starting pitching. Whether that was correct or not, who knows. The Indians look so scrappy overall… Well, they have Ron Alston. At the conclusion of that series, he had 34 home runs, and with the way the year had gone I estimated about half of those having come against Brownshirts, but in fact he had hit “only” six against us, but three in that last series. He’s nasty, though.

If Neil Reece would have gotten two more hits on Sunday, he would have tied the franchise hits mark by surprise after only starting against the three southpaws this week.

But yeah, Sunday. We have gone 2-7 against the Thunder three out of the last four years. Butch Kaustrop. **** my life.

05-26-2015, 09:52 PM	#1316
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,809	Raccoons (69-75) @ Indians (73-70) – September 16-18, 2003 Third in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed – and yet the Indians played out the string in mid-September. In this they didn’t distinguish themselves much from the perennially fruitless Raccoons, whom they had clobbered at a .733 pace this season. Projected matchups: Nick Brown (9-12, 3.80 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (14-10, 3.46 ERA) Randy Farley (11-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Jack Hamilton (5-6, 2.85 ERA) Edgar Amador (5-5, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (4-8, 4.68 ERA) With an off day on Monday, the unreliable (to say the least) Ramón Meza was skipped. We have no more weeks without off days so this might become a semi-permanent arrangement until the end of the season. Maybe we will sneak in Bob Joly at one point. Nobody in AAA really deserves a shot. Or might survive one. Game 1 POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Brown IND: 2B D. Mendez – SS Stevens – RF Alston – C T. Turner – LF Alvarez – 1B Booker – CF Mendoza – 3B Harris – P Alba The Furballs got a running start when Torrez walked and Sharp hit a bomb that bent around the inside of the foul pole in left – fair by a whisker. Brownie reached 200 strikeouts on the season in the fourth inning, fanning Tom Turner, but by then had been taken deep twice already, by Robbie Harris and Ron Alston, after initially retiring the first six Indians in the game. An infield single by callup Ricardo Mendoza got the Indians started in the bottom 3rd, and the game was tied at three after four innings. A similar spectacle gave the Indians the win in this one in the seventh, although then Brown – in the process of melting down – hit Mendoza with an errant 3-0 pitch before Harris homered in a full count, leaving Brown with seven strikeouts and five runs conceded in six and two thirds. The Raccoons left the bases loaded in the top 8th when Palacios flew out to Alvarez, and in the bottom of the inning Scott Boone retired nobody, with another run scoring. 6-3 Indians. Sharp 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Palacios 2-4; Beairsto struck out twice, but managed a single, stitching an 11-game hitting streak together. Not bad for a swing-and-miss guy. Game 2 POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – RF Beairsto – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Rojas – CF Moore – C Thomas – P Farley IND: 3B Montray – RF C. Rey – LF Alston – CF Cavazos – 2B D. Mendez – 1B Kilters – C Bowen – SS Stevens – P Hamilton Beairsto got to 12 games in a hurry, giving the Raccoons 2-run homers in the top 1st in back-to-back games, here collecting Concie who had doubled. Quickly it became apparent that Randy had arrived without his best (and then still limited) stuff, and that his control was at times troubled. The Indians got a run off him in the first before the teams settled into a 2-1 slog in which neither team could land a blow for an extended period of time. The Coons would surprisingly score next after not reaching third base for four innings, but in the sixth Ramirez got on with a walk, took a base when Hamilton balked, and scored on Moore’s double. Moore was then thrown out at home trying to score on Mark Thomas’ single. The Indians got their first two men, Rey and Alston, on with singles in the bottom 6th but again couldn’t get through Farley. The score remained 3-1 in favor of the Critters, who then broke through Maximo Mendez in the top 7th. RBI doubles by Reece for one, and Rojas for two runs opened the score to 6-1, but four 2-out base runners not only chased Farley in the bottom 7th but also plated a run before finally ex-Coon Cavazos popped out to short and saved us (and Farley and Moreno) from more heartbreak. Neil Reece drove in another run with two out in the eighth, singling in Matt Love, who had walked after entering in the double switch that removed Randy from the game, but Bob Joly coughed up a homer to .191 batting Craig Bowen in the bottom of the inning. Disaster still loomed large over the visitors’ dugout, 7-3 score or not. Indeed, the entirely insufficient Scott Boone meeting up with Ron Alston resulted in another homer to finally create a save chance for Dan Nordahl, which he converted with a K to David Mendez. 7-4 Coons. Guerin 2-5, 2B; Reece 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Rojas 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Thomas 2-5; Farley 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (12-5) and 1-3; To compare Brownie’s and Randy’s stuff: the former has 202 K, and the latter not even 100 this year (96). Brown has spun 13 more innings. Game 3 POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Amador IND: 3B Montray – 1B M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 2B D. Mendez – CF J. Lugo – RF MacKey – SS Stevens – P Jimenez Again, the Raccoons took the first lead of the night on a home run, but this time it didn’t come until the third inning, but also counted for three when Al Martin sent a no-doubt rocket to center and beyond. Amador again worked his way down to a 4.00 ERA before something bad happened, in this case Jose Paraz’ leadoff jack in the bottom 4th. In the sixth, we left the bases loaded when Sharp grounded out after scoring one run on a Ledesma single, but that run came right back from Amador when Ron Alston continued to treat our staff as punching bags and homered to left center, 4-2. Top 7th, Brady led off with a double, followed by three singles to score Brady and load them up. Jimenez remained in the game, popped up Palacios, and Ledesma hit into a double play. Gah. To make up for that annoyance, the Indians put two on in the bottom 7th, knocking out Amador with one out, with Benton Wilson coming in, only to walk Phil Montray. Jesus Alavarez hit for Mike Jones, but hit into a double play. Well, it DOES happen to every team! Top 8th, Maximo Mendez pitching, Ingall singled, Torrez singled, Reece walked. No outs! No hits were coming forth from here, but at least Brady walked, and Martin and Beairsto both had run-scoring outs. Up by six, Huerta pitched a scoreless eighth and then we were mentally ready to give Kichida another chance to get that 12-ish ERA down in the ninth. Three up, three down, and a K to Bowen to end it. 8-2 Furballs! Torrez 2-4, BB; Brady 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Martin 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Guerin 3-5, 2B; Ingall (PH) 1-2; Al Martin of course hit his 100th major league home run. He took 2,197 AB to get there, OPS’ing .826 along the way. Raccoons (71-76) @ Thunder (76-70) – September 19-21, 2003 The Thunder tied the Falcons for the CL South lead, so we could expect fierce resistance to our attempts at taking this series. The Thunder had taken four of six from us so far, and they were still scoring the least runs in the league. In a way you had to be rooting for the Falcons, because a team so inept at run scoring shouldn’t make the playoffs! Their pitching was phenomenal, though, conceding less than 3.8 runs per game, second best in the CL. Projected matchups: Felipe Garcia (6-4, 3.61 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (13-12, 3.59 ERA) Bob Joly (2-8, 4.20 ERA) vs. Vaughn Higgins (12-10, 3.65 ERA) Nick Brown (9-13, 3.90 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (9-11, 3.64 ERA) Marcos Bruno rejoined us from the DL, and Sergio Vega could also come back for a cameo in a few days, and then we should run out of chairs in the bullpen. Game 1 POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Beairsto – C Thomas – 2B Love – CF Torrez – P F. Garcia OCT: LF F. Jones – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – CF Olson – P Armand To put it simply, Felipe Garcia was hit by a Greyhound and dragged all the way to Omaha, NE. The first four Thunder all hit the ball hard, hit it deep, and Tomas Cardenas’ 3-run dinger made it 4-0 for them before Garcia registered a single out. Garcia didn’t get out of the second inning, with three more hard hits off him, and when Kaz Kichida came in he had nothing better to do than giving up another RBI triple to Takahashi Higashi. 7-1 Thunder after two, this one had gotten out of hand quickly against THE WORST OFFENSIVE TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. At least Kichida saved his ham by going into the sixth inning, allowing one more run on the way, but it wasn’t like it still mattered. At that point, Beairsto and Thomas were the only Raccoons with a hit, manufacturing their lone run in the second inning. When Neil Reece singled in the eighth, the Thunder seemed to fear a comeback from 9-1 and went to their pen which quickly quelled the insurgency. 9-1 Thunder. Beairsto 1-2, BB; Ramirez (PH) 1-1; Kichida 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; Well, that was unpleasant. And next is Joly’s spot start. (laughs madly) Game 2 POR: CF Torrez – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Beairsto – SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – C Ledesma – P Joly OCT: CF Olson – C De La Parra – 3B Higashi – 1B T. Cardenas – LF Humphrey – 2B Grant – SS Scott – RF Rangel – P Higgins Joly was more or less in the game since a pitcher was mandatory by the rule book. If the Thunder had played tee ball, the difference would have been small. Joly surrendered nine hits in 3.2 innings, which miraculously only amounted to two runs for the Thunder, before leaving with an injury, possibly due to split ends. The game was a copy of Friday’s. The Raccoons did nothing, the Thunder hit every which way, although they left runners on base in droves this time and led only 3-0 after seven. It took not one, but TWO errors by the Thunder to get the Coons into the game at all. Moore led off, and Burton Scott threw his grounder away. Torrez made an out, Sharp singled, and then Brady’s perfect double play serving was thrown away by Bob Grant. That made it 3-1 and runners on first and second with one out for the menacing left-handers, with righty Vaughn Higgins still pitching. Martin struck out, and Beairsto rolled one to short. A third error was too much to ask for. 3-1 Thunder. Torrez 2-4; Bob Joly had a sore wrist, and we would not speculate over where that came from. Perhaps serving up too many gopherballs. Game 3 POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – CF Torrez – C Thomas – P Brown OCT: CF Santos – RF Rangel – SS Grant – 1B Higashi – 2B Kaustrop – C De La Parra – LF M. Rodriguez – 3B Scott – P L. Martinez Brady robbed the hovering demon Butch Kaustrop of a 2-run double to end the bottom 1st of what early on figured to become another long and dreadful night for Raccoons pitching as Brown failed to find the strike zone. In the second, Brown hit both leadoff man Antonio De La Parra AND the opposing pitcher, Luis Martinez, but the Thunder still didn’t score. The Coons loaded them up in the top 3rd, one out, for Neil Reece. The old war horse, who had recently turned 37, lobbed a soft line over a leaping Higashi into shallow right to score the first run of the game. The line kept moving: Martin singled, 2-0, Brady walked, 3-0, and Ingall managed a sac fly to right, 4-0. That didn’t make Brownie any better, though. When he whiffed Grant in the third, it was his first K on the day, for the second out in the inning. He immediately walked Higashi, and it was Sharp with a fantastic grab on Kaustrop’s sharp line drive to end the inning. The boy needs a W. Maybe we could nurse him through five somehow. Just as that thought hushed into our minds, Brown got good, retired the Thunder in order over the next two frames, striking out three, and hardly missed. He was brought back for the sixth – and sucked. Three hits scored a run for the Thunder, and Manuel Martinez replaced him and got out of the inning. The Raccoons were more or less idle in the top halves of innings until the eighth, when they got a few singles. Brady had one, and after Ingall failed to bunt twice, he singled on a 1-2 pitch by Cris Pena. Torrez made an out, but Mark Thomas singled up the middle and scored Brady. One more run would score on a groundout by Concie, making it a 6-1 game with six outs to collect. Predictably, the bullpen crumbled. Sergio Vega struck out Alberto Rangel, then put two on. Marcos Bruno came in, and couldn’t get it done AT ALL. The runners scored, and there were two more on after Bruno had also balked and thrown a wild pitch. Domingo Moreno didn’t help, allowing 2-out RBI single to Joey Humphrey that made it 6-4. Nordahl to the rescue, facing PH Brian Camphell, and ANOTHER grounder through on the left side, scoring the fourth run of the inning. Rangel then flew out to Torrez. GODDAMNIT!!! Of course it wasn’t over! There was still a ninth inning, and that was led off by Bob Grant with a home run. Nordahl, the useless **, loaded the bases while also striking out three in the inning, and we got to play extras for extra “yay, Raccoons baseball!”. Top 10th, Ingall and Torrez got on with no outs, leading to Thomas bunting into a force at third. Palacios hit into a double play, and Martin and Higashi left runners on the corners in the 11th. Guerin grounded out to end the 12th with two on. By that point, we were out of pitchers. It was either Meza or Boone. Boone was a sure loss, and Meza was a sure loss, too. Meza came in, Jason Briggs led off with a single, tried to get to second, but Eddie Torrez threw him out. Meza walked two, but the Thunder didn’t finish him off, but in turn Meza killed the top 13th with a room service bunt to get Reece tagged out. Bottom 13th. Butch Kaustrop grounded to second, and beat out Palacios’ throw to second. Antonio Ayala bunted and was safe at first. Meza walked Marcos Rodriguez. Three on, no outs. Burton Scott grounded right in front of the plate, where Thomas made the play himself for a force of Kaustrop at home. Jason Briggs popped out to shallow right to Brady, and Ayala tagged, but didn’t go. Meza then struck out Marshall Lyons. Oh my god, it goes on. The Thunder had a 2-out single and walk off Meza in the bottom 14th when he struck out Joe Watkins, 29, in his first major league AB, to get out of that one. Top 15th. Concie led off with a walk off Ricardo Contreras and made it to second on a hit-and-run with Rojas grounding to short. That brought up Reece. He was 4-6 on the day, finding ways to sneak singles through on the left side. Contreras didn’t get him at 1-2, but Reece singled to left, and Concie ran, ran, ran and was safe at home to break a 6-6 tie that should have been broken years ago. Ledesma hit for Meza, doubled, and Brady was walked intentionally to load them up for Ingall. C’mon, Marv! Give us one! Nope, Marv grounded out, and Torrez lined out to left. Now our options in the 7-6 game were Boone, an ailing Joly, a much-used Rockburn, or Monday’s starter, Randy Farley. That was a decision nobody wanted to make, but we had right-handers due up, and … oh … oh what to do? Rockburn came out, and we had a feeling of death approaching. Rodriguez lined the first pitch into right, where Brady made a hero’s play. Burton Scott was 2-2 when he lined hard to the left side – CONCIE!!! The second mad catch of the inning, now what could go wrong with Jason Briggs!? He walked. And when Lyons shot a ball into the gap in left center, there were no heroes left. Briggs scored. Rangel grounded out to Guerin to fall to 0-8 on the day, but it was just not … it was … a-aah… Top 16th! And Farley was warming up, because Boone and Joly were sure losses. Unless we’d plate six or so. We didn’t plate any, and what did we say about sure losses? Farley didn’t retire anybody. Grant singled, Higashi tripled, ballgame. 8-7 Thunder. Guerin 2-6, 3 BB, RBI; Reece 5-7, BB, 2 RBI; Ledesma (PH) 1-1, 2B; Thomas 4-7, BB, 2B, RBI; Box score: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3874012 Stupid bunch of decrepit s. Both teams left 22 on base. We used 12 pitchers. The voices tell me to ram a knife into my own neck to make the pain stop. In other news September 15 – The Stars concede defeat and send 28-year old 1B Mac Woods (.291, 37 HR, 93 RBI) to the Loggers along with a scrub for … 1B/3B/RF Vitantonio Cavalleri (.259, 1 HR, 13 RBI)??? September 17 – The Buffaloes would have loved to have CL Arthur Joplin (4-2, 0.55 ERA, 23 SV) down the road, but the 30-year old southpaw has to be shut down with elbow inflammation and is out for the season. Complaints and stuff Well, I guess the Loggers just got better? That trade is a steal. Congrats to GM Leland French. His Texan trade partner should be institutionalized, though. We finish the year 6-12 against the Indians, matching the low mark from 1990. Given that we lost the season series only once between ’91 and ’01 (ironically in ’96), they must have something to counter us, but I don’t know what. There was a time a few years back when we’d always suck out against the Titans. Back then I identified their left-handed starting pitching. Whether that was correct or not, who knows. The Indians look so scrappy overall… Well, they have Ron Alston. At the conclusion of that series, he had 34 home runs, and with the way the year had gone I estimated about half of those having come against Brownshirts, but in fact he had hit “only” six against us, but three in that last series. He’s nasty, though. If Neil Reece would have gotten two more hits on Sunday, he would have tied the franchise hits mark by surprise after only starting against the three southpaws this week. But yeah, Sunday. We have gone 2-7 against the Thunder three out of the last four years. Butch Kaustrop. ** my life. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.