[Westheim]

I’ve had a strange week. Here comes only the second update.

Danny Sharp enters the week with a 12-game hitting streak in place.

Raccoons (55-50) @ Condors (46-59) – August 2-4, 2004

While the Condors were fifth in runs scored and generally capable of hurting opposing pitchers, their own pitching staff was kind of a bottomless well, as they conceded the second-most runs in the league. Horrible defense also had a hand in their struggles.

Projected matchups:
Edgar Amador (7-4, 3.48 ERA) vs. Jose Aguilar (1-12, 5.91 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-4, 3.21 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (1-4, 5.75 ERA)
Randy Farley (5-10, 4.70 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (6-11, 3.51 ERA)

We will do good to keep our head above water in this series, because after that we play four with the Titans. These three pitchers are all right-handed. Yates leads the Continental League in strikeouts.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Tyler – C Rosa – P Amador
TIJ: SS Heathershaw – C Cicalina – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – 1B B. Boyle – RF J. Thomas – 3B N. Chavez – 2B McGreary – P J. Aguilar

And the week started with one of those games that just kicked you in the guts, sent you to the floor, and when you were rolling and wincing, here comes a kick in the stomach.

Amador pitched two innings, then left with an injury, while the Raccoons left a few runners wherever they chose to. The bottom 3rd saw Bill Corkum rocked for three runs, but most blame was on a capital dork move by Darwin Tyler in centerfield, allowing Ramón Perez a 2-out, 2-run double on a ball that could easily have been a single, and no runs, and Tyler, the dork, wasn’t even charged an error. The mess didn’t get any less awful from here. Moreno just didn’t retire anybody and was charged four runs between the fifth and sixth innings, with Freddy Rosa making a terrible throwing error on a stolen base attempt. Jose Aguilar, who had won ONE game all year long, cruised through seven, and when Albert Martin did hit a 3-run home run in the eighth, it was way too late, and way too little. 8-3 Condors. Guerin 2-3, BB; Sharp 2-4; Thomas (PH) 1-1; Love (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – C M. Thomas – CF King – P Brown
TIJ: CF R. Perez – 2B B. Boyle – C Cicalina – RF Luxton – 1B Heathershaw – SS McGreary – LF J. Thomas – 3B Stein – P Patrick

Good news were that Brownie registered the first seven outs with strikeouts. Bad news were that the Condors scored two runs on three hits in the bottom 1st anyway, driven in by Bradley Heathershaw. The Coons had about nothing going for them for their first 17 outs. Martin doubled with two out in the sixth, their first runner in a few innings. From here, Ingall singled, Brady singled, plating Martin, and Thomas drew a walk. That brought up King with the bases loaded, down 2-1, and the count ran full. Matt King for once didn’t flunk out, and hit a single to left to plate two runs and flip the score to 3-2 in favor of Brown, who was up next and blooped a single to shallow center to score Thomas and it was 4-2. Guerin struck out, ending a streak of six straight runners that had created some terrific 2-out terror. Brown delivered a shutdown inning, striking out McGreary to reach ten K’s on the day, and he got pinch-hitter Luis Reya for his 11th to end a perfect seventh, but he had now over 100 pitches on his odometer, and we had very little bullpen to work with. But maybe he had another one or two outs in him. Brown batted with runners on the corners and one out in the eighth, and singled through the venerable Jim Stein to score the team’s fifth run. Guerin struck out again on a rotten day, but Sharp went from 0-4 to a 14-game hitting streak with an RBI single that plated King, 6-2. Brown was squeezed dry in the bottom 8th, which he completed despite plunking Cicalina with two outs. Clyde Brady made a strong catch on Robbie Luxton’s drive to right, and Brown got through eight with a dozen strikeouts. And yet, it was all about to go up in flames. Huerta couldn’t finish the bottom 9th, and put McGreary on base. With two outs, Williams replaced him, but walked the bases full. We had to get out Marcos Bruno with the tying run at the plate in Ramón Perez. Bruno fell to 3-1 before Perez sent a drive to left, and while the less confident souls around fainted, Neil Reece wrung the last bit of ooze from his old, wretched body and intercepted the drive to end the game. 6-2 Coons. Martin 4-5, 2B; Brady 2-4, BB, RBI; Thomas 3-4, BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, W (15-4) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

To be honest, I didn’t faint in the ninth, I fainted in the first.

Now off to Randy, who, if he doesn’t take victory in this game, will have gone TWO MONTHS without a W.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF M. Ramirez – C M. Thomas – LF Tyler – CF King – P Farley
TIJ: SS McGreary – C Cicalina – CF R. Perez – LF Luxton – 2B B. Boyle – RF J. Thomas – 1B Cambria – 3B N. Chavez – P Yates

A Perez single, a stolen base, another single, and the Condors were up 1-0 in the first. By contrast in the top half of the third inning, the Raccoons turned King getting on, stealing second base, with no outs, into a bad bunt and an out at third base and a double play. Farley turned out to have nothing at all and managed to get to two full winless months with ease, being laden with five runs over 5.1 innings. It wasn’t all his fault. Part of the issue was the Raccoons not scoring anything anyway. If your team nets you zero runs, it’s hard to win, logically. They had the bases loaded with one out in the third, didn’t score, and then didn’t even come close against Yates. In the eighth, the Condors doubled their output against Corkum, who did not get a strike past any of the four batters he faced, and Nordahl. The Raccoons managed two hits (none by Sharp) in a fantastic smothering. 10-0 Condors.

For additional delight, Edgar Amador has a ruptured tendon in his right index finger, and will not come back this season. Oh, the most terrible joy!

Luckily, we still had Felipe Garcia stowed away and sucking to a 3-2, 3.71 ERA tune in St. Pete, and he was recalled. That also earns Carlos Sackett a more permanent role in the rotation completely without his own merit, since who else should start games for us?

Raccoons (56-52) vs. Titans (77-31) – August 5-8, 2004

… and thus the Raccoons found themselves back at .500, we will be able to say on Monday. The Titans rank first in so many categories, it would be tedious to list them all. When they don’t rank first somewhere, they are sure as hell in the top 3. The only exception are home runs, of which they hit the fifth-least, but to be honest, if you are first in all conceivable offensive categories without the benefit of home runs, you don’t quite need home runs. The Raccoons have maintained a 3-4 illusion of being .429 as good as the Titans so far, but I don’t quite know how to cover the next four games with the available pitchers just yet.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (6-11, 4.36 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (12-6, 3.54 ERA)
Carlos Sackett (2-1, 4.88 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (14-5, 1.95 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (5-8, 5.36 ERA) vs. Joe Mann (10-3, 3.18 ERA)
Nick Brown (15-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (14-3, 4.11 ERA)

Ha-hah. Funny.

Even funnier was Thursday’s series opener getting rained out and pushed to Friday. This necessitated a roster move, since we need arms. Matt Love was demoted and Angel Casas joined us.

Game 1
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – LF G. Munoz – RF Greenman – 2B M. Austin – CF Garrison – 3B V. Flores – C Bader – P Chapa
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Sharp – 3B Ingall – RF M. Ramirez – LF Reece – CF King – 2B Sheehan – C Thomas – P Ford

Whenever the Titans needed a run in the first part of Friday’s double header, they got one, but they were all singles and Ford starved a few men on while they took a 2-0 lead in the first three innings. That 2-0 gap still looked tall as a mountain with Chapa dealing and allowing only three singles through five innings, before he ever so slightly brushed Ralph Ford’s uniform to start the bottom of the sixth. That was still a free first base, no matter how gentle a hit batsman it was, and Guerin followed it up with a single. A wild pitch put the runners in scoring position with no outs, and those were the tying runs after all. Sharp struck out, Ingall popped out, Ramirez grounded out, and nobody scored. Bottom 7th, King hit a single, Sheehan hit an infield single, and Thomas hit into a double play. Austin and Garrison hit singles off Ford with one out in the eighth, but with Martinez replacing Ford didn’t get another hit – but they didn’t need one right now. Bottom 9th, Ramiro Román replaced an about spotless Chapa, and Ingall singled. Martin hit for Ramirez, right into a double play, before Román walked Reece, and then also walked Tyler hitting for King. The tying runs were on once more for Brad Sheehan, and he grounded out to Austin. 2-0 Titans. Guerin 2-4; Ingall 2-4; Sheehan 2-4;

We have TWO extra-base hits in the last three games. That is two extra-base hits TOTAL in three games.

Game 2
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B V. Flores – LF G. Munoz – 3B M. Austin – CF Garrison – 1B Brewer – RF Bryant – C Baggett – P Hildred
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – C Rosa – CF King – P Sackett

For the fourth consecutive game, the Raccoons allowed a run in the first, and in Sackett’s case it was being glad it was only one, for the Titans got their first four men on base and it was Rosa throwing out Silva trying to steal third base that was a big relief here. David Brewer struck out to leave a pair stranded. Cucumberhead Silva’s revenge was a 2-run homer off Sackett with two out in the top 2nd, 3-0, but the Raccoons had a nasty surprise in store for Hildred in the next inning following a 25-minute intermission due to the Portland weather rearing two or more of its more ugly heads. More 2-out terror was going to come. Sackett led off with an out, but Concie and Sharpie singled, and Brady walked to load them up for Martin with one out. Martin struck out, however, bringing up Ingall. Begging for a single, Ingall doubled up on that, hit one into the deep, dark corner in leftfield and plated all three runners to tie the game. Reece singled then, and that brought up new acquisition Freddy Rosa, who was a player cast in the same mold as Gary Fifield – and took Hildred deep for a crushing 3-run homer that put the Raccoons up 6-3. In a perfect world, Sackett would have gotten at least through five, but didn’t. Rudy Garrison’s 2-run homer in the fifth cut the lead to a minimum, and then Sackett walked Brewer and was run from the game. Angel Casas entered, struck out Bryant and Baggett, and also took care of the sixth inning despite issuing a leadoff walk to reliever Nick Lee. We got a clean seventh from Dave Williams before Nordahl came in for the eighth, still up by a run. Howard Bryant sent a hard fly to deep left that at first looked like it would leave the park, but didn’t, and then it looked like Neil Reece would catch it, which he did, before he banged into the wall, and while it looked like he would hold onto it, he didn’t, and Bryant had a double. A pinch-hit double by Hector Ramirez smashed the Coons’ lead to dust. The go-ahead run would score on a wild pitch, which got Ramiro Román out for the second time on the day in the bottom 9th. Neil Reece drew a leadoff walk, was bunted over by Rosa and scored on King’s single to tie the score at seven. King made it to second on an errant and perhaps ill-advised pickoff attempt while Ramirez was at the plate with one out, but the situation resolved in favor of the Titans when Román recovered to strike out both Ramirez and Guerin. Extra innings started with a pinch-hit home run by Christian Greenman against Ricardo Huerta, and that was the game, although it took Román two walks in the bottom 10th and striking out Ingall and Reece to dodge another bullet. 8-7 Titans. Ingall 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Rosa 1-2, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Casas 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

I would have a thing or two to say about this team right now, but Maud has talked to me about complaints from the neighbors again with all the screams and curses, and gave me one of those little plastic bags filled with sand or grain or children’s souls or whatever and a sorry face painted on it so I could punch it instead.

Punch it in silence, of course.

Game 3
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – LF G. Munoz – RF Greenman – 3B M. Austin – CF Garrison – 2B H. Ramirez – C Bader – P Mann
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – CF King – C Rosa – LF Tyler – P F. Garcia

Four hits, two runs for the Titans … in the first inning, as a very nasty streak of early (in addition to middle and late) failing for Coons starters continued. Garcia in general wouldn’t do anything right in this game, and was dug out by strong defense a few times. Offensively, the Raccoons were acting offensively again, and just couldn’t get anything mounted, and so it was 3-0 through the top 7th, which Garcia started but left sitting in a hole that Dave Williams shoveled in again with a strikeout to Hector Ramirez to strand a pair. Bottom 7th, the Titans showed signs of cracking. First, King got on, stole second base, and then scored on two outs. Reece hit for Williams, singled, and then Guerin reached on Silva’s error and Brady walked to load them up for Miguel Ramirez, whom Joe Mann got to pop up and pop out, and three Coons were left stranded. Bottom 9th, still 3-1 Titans, Rosa hit a single off Ramiro Román, who seemed to work in every game, before Guerin singled to left and Brady walked with two out, and again Ramirez was up. We had Sheehan and Thomas left on the bench, and went with the former, hoping for something other than a strikeout that was all too likely with Ramirez. And Sheehan struck out. 3-1 Titans. Brady 2-3, 2 BB; Reece (PH) 1-1;

Game 4
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – RF Greenman – 2B M. Austin – CF Garrison – 3B V. Flores – LF Bryant – C Bader – P F. Garza
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – 3B Sharp – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Reece – C Thomas – CF King – P Brown

A bloop by Silva that fell in front of a sliding Reece, a Matsumoto single to right, a groundout by Greenman, and there were two in scoring position for Brown, who nevertheless ended the recent starters’ futility with first-inning tallies, struck out Austin, and Garrison popped out. Joy was ultimately not called for, since Brown issued a leadoff walk to Vic Flores in the second, and Bryant tripled, also scoring in the course of the inning. While Martin would make half the damage with a homer in the fourth, more comeback was thwarted by Guerin failing with a runner(s) in scoring position and two outs – twice. Bryant’s triple was about everything that put Brown on the hook, who was hardly challenged from the fourth through the seventh, but the Raccoons couldn’t get ANYTHING done. An Ingall error and insufficient recovery pitching by Martinez cost a third run in the eighth inning, which was unearned, but damaging nonetheless. The Raccoons went down without much fuss after all. 3-1 Titans. Martin 2-4, HR, RBI; King 2-3;

There IS sand in these bags. How do I know? Well, it’s spilled all over by office. Slappy came by, looked at it, and refused to clean it up.

In other news

August 2 – TOP SP Tony Hamlyn (14-5, 1.52 ERA) spills three hits and whiffs nine in a shutout over the Warriors.
August 2 – SAC CL Jerry “Horseface” Paul (2-6, 3.24 ERA, 24 SV) is out for the season after being diagnosed with shoulder inflammation.

Complaints and stuff

After April and May, the Raccoons were 34-18. On June 1, they got buried in a mudslide and since then have gone 22-38. And here we are, at .500, and entirely unhappy.

Good thing about The Fat Cat’s injury is that the incessant eating will stop now because he only can use one hand to stuff his jaws full. Might lose a few pounds until next season.

Chris Roberson had a 5-hit day on Sunday for the Buffaloes, including a grand slam and six runs driven in overall in Topeka’s 10-6 win over Cincy.

And hey, if the hairy suckers go 16-34 from here (which is not that far away from 22-38), I will at least win the preseason projection lottery.

YAY. LUCKY ME.