[Westheim]

Raccoons (58-60) vs. Buffaloes (73-45) – August 17-19, 2004

Another clobbering coming? They are third in scoring and second in preventing runs in the Federal League, and well, that might be the reason for their .619 pace. We will not be able to dodge their stud starter Tony Hamlyn either. We played the Buffaloes only twice since taking two of three in 1997, and lost both of those series.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (6-13, 4.33 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (15-5, 1.45 ERA)
Carlos Sackett (3-1, 5.77 ERA) vs. John Miller (13-8, 3.93 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (5-10, 5.19 ERA) vs. Alfonso Velasco (7-11, 4.83 ERA)

That is no typo with Hamlyn. He is that mean.

Game 1
TOP: LF Perri – RF Theobald – 2B Spinu – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Valenzuela – C M. Torres – 3B Merritt – SS Nakayama – P Hamlyn
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 3B M. Ramirez – 1B Martin – LF Reece – RF Brady – CF King – C Rosa – P Ford

The Buffaloes got two games’ worth of run support for Hamlyn in the first, which seemed over when with Georg Spinu on first base and Javier Gusmán batting, Ford had Gusmán at 0-2, then plunked him. Jose Valenzuela, the former Elk, homered on a 1-1 pitch in the middle of the highway, and that game was officially penciled into the loss column for the Raccoons. By the time the Raccoons came even close to matching that output, Ford had allowed a run in the fourth, fifth, and sixth each, not surviving the sixth as well, and Huerta and Corkum had unraveled in a 3-run seventh. Hamlyn had conceded a run early when Concie singled, stole a base, and somehow came home, and didn’t allow anything else until Sharp and Reece hit 2-out RBI singles, and both of those incredibly cheap, in the eighth. Hamlyn was only temporarily unfazed, and still pitched a complete game, fanning ten Critters. 9-3 Buffaloes. Sharp (PH) 1-1, RBI; Reece 3-4, RBI; Sheehan (PH) 2-2;

Game 2
TOP: 2B Spinu – C G. Ortíz – RF J. Gusmán – LF Perri – SS Merritt – CF Theobald – 3B Sutton – 1B J. Garcia – P J. Miller
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 2B M. Ramirez – CF Beairsto – LF Tyler – C Thomas – P Sackett

The best of defense couldn’t save Sackett’s sorry butt in the middle game of the series. The Buffaloes put two runs on him with the help of a triple by Julio Garcia in the second inning, and Gusmán homered to make it 3-0 in the third. Guerin made an awesome play to end the third, Sharp started an incredible double play in the fifth, but all of that did help little with Sackett pitching in 3-ball counts virtually all the time. The Buffaloes made poor outs in 3-0 or 3-1 counts three times, too. And yet, they led 3-0 once Sackett was removed after six, with the Raccoons doing nothing against Miller. They had runners on the corners with two out in the bottom 3rd, but Brady made a puny out. Puny outs were the topic of the day for the Coons, who accepted to be pierced 27 tiny little holes by John Miller without offering much opposition. Miller joined Hamlyn in tossing a complete game, but bested him in not allowing three runs, but rather three hits, all weak singles, and twirled a shutout, whiffing four. 3-0 Buffaloes.

John Miller has 39 complete games in his career, and this is his seventh shutout. He is a strange case, getting better with age. He spun his first shutout in 1995 at age 26 for the Capitals, and then didn’t get another one until he was 31 with the 2000 Titans.

And what do the Raccoons have? **** pitching, **** batting, and a 5-game losing streak. (We have actually lost 13 of 15 at this point)

Game 3
TOP: 2B Spinu – C G. Ortíz – RF J. Gusmán – LF Perri – CF Roberson – 3B Ramey – SS Sutton – 1B J. Garcia – P Velasco
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – RF M. Ramirez – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – LF Beairsto – C Rosa – CF Tyler – P F. Garcia

Gusmán went deep for two runs in the top 1st, getting the Raccoons trailing early. The next two batters singled and Chris Ramey brought in a third run with a sac fly to right. 3-0 and we haven’t even batted yet. And batting was nothing the Raccoons were particularly good at, either. Ramirez then singled to lead off the bottom 4th. Martin worked a 3-0 count against Velasco before choosing to ground out pathetically. That was an out we ended up sorely wishing to go off the board. While the Coons plated a run on a Rosa single, the bases ended up being loaded for Garcia with two out, and Velasco managed to whiff him to keep three Critters afloat. For those Critters, things got worse at a rapid pace, with two runs on Garcia in the fifth, one driven in by Ramey, and three more runs on Bill Corkum in the seventh, and two driven in by Ramey. The Coons’ output as a whole was wholly insufficient to beat career quad-A player Chris Ramey and they were soundly swept away for a third time. 9-2 Buffaloes. Sheehan (PH) 1-1; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

Roster moves

The Raccoons, losers of 14 of their last 16 games, cleaned house that night.

Bill Corkum was waived and designated for assignment after suffering a complete meltdown in the last three weeks. He can’t get anybody out, nobody wants a piece of him (understandably), and I need that roster spot!

Also purged from the pitching staff were Carlos Sackett and Felipe Garcia, who were both demoted to AAA. In the place of these three suckers, we called up Angel Casas, Kenichi Watanabe, and Fernando Piquero. The latter two have ERA’s in the 5’s even in St. Pete, so they will offer NO break over the personnel we just dumped in the bin.

Darwin Tyler and Chris Beairsto, who was only warmed up to AAA levels, were also demoted. Jorge Rodriguez was called up to back up the outfield corners (there is no backup to Matt King in center at all now, except almost-38-years-old Neil Reece), while we also added Lawrence Rockburn as additional bullpen arm to survive the next two weeks until rosters will expand.

Raccoons (58-63) vs. Canadiens (58-62) – August 20-22, 2004

The Canadiens were hot compared to the Raccoons. They had lost their last five games, while we had lost our last six. Something’s gotta give here. They were 10th in runs scored, but second in runs allowed, with a +15 run differential, comparing unfavorably for the Raccoons, who were now tied for last in runs scored, and sixth in runs allowed, with a -50 run differential. We trail 5-6 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (15-5, 3.13 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (11-10, 3.15 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-11, 4.94 ERA) vs. George Norris (2-7, 5.63 ERA)
Ralph Ford (6-14, 4.54 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (9-12, 5.71 ERA)

Three right-handers. On paper, all three days’ starters are more or less evenly matched...

Game 1
VAN: SS Phillips – LF Trinidad – 3B Suzuki – 1B A. Munoz – RF R. Green – 2B J. Zamora – CF Wheaton – C F. Diéguez – P Fujita
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF Brady – CF King – LF J. Rodriguez – C Thomas – P Brown

Brown was wild to start the series opener, and shoveled his own grave, a shallow one, too, in the second inning by drilling Dave Wheaton to put two runners on base. The Canadiens got their runners into scoring position and Jim Phillips’ 2-out single scored both of them, putting Brown down 2-0. The story of the Raccoons’ offensive offense was quickly told. They had two good chances to score while Brown was in the game, and Jorge Rodriguez, just called up, managed to **** up both of them with double play grounders to Zamora, both ending the inning, once with the bases loaded. Bottom 9th, Ingall led off with a single, and Martin hit into a double play. 2-0 Canadiens. Ingall 2-4; King 1-1, 2 BB; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, L (15-6);

Juichi Fujita became the third pitcher to go the distance against the Raccoons this week, and the second to spin a shutout, in this case a 6-hitter.

The Players Union is up in arms over the Raccoons’ offensive ineptness. It puts relievers out of jobs all over the league.

Game 2
VAN: RF T. Wilson – LF Wheaton – CF E. Garcia – 1B Suzuki – 2B J. Zamora – SS Rodgers – 3B Rivas – C Hurtado – P Norris
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Reece – CF King – SS Sheehan – C Rosa – P Farley

Wilson and Wheaton singled and Suzuki walked, but somehow Farley was not sunk outright by the smelling Elks. Rather, George Norris was stuck with three runs in the bottom 1st in a fantastic offensive explosion of a walk and three hits, including a 2-run double by Neil Reece. Top 2nd, Alex Rivas led off with a single, before Farley walked Hurtado. He would go on to balk TWICE in the inning, and surrender two more singles to get the Elks right back to within a run. The Coons got those two runs right back in the bottom 2nd, and then Farley led off the third by drilling Jesus Zamora, which was about the point where the manager walked out to the mound to tell that he could either pitch properly now or be choked to death right there on the mound. It worked for a while, but not forever. Farley sat down the next eight Elks before Zamora singled his next time up. While Farley did get through five, he only got an out from reliever Paco Leoniedas in the sixth before being lifted, being on 113 pitches. Dave Williams plated Zamora with a wild pitch to get the Elks back to 5-3. In turn the Raccoons lost a run in the bottom 6th when Guerin hit for Williams, singled, was thrown out stealing, the Coons loaded them up, and Martin and Reece left three men stranded. Then Huerta entered, allowed a leadoff double in the top 7th, and that runner scored as well, 5-4. Bottom of the inning, bases loaded, two out, Brady up, groundout to second, and nobody scored. Reece hit into a double play in the bottom 8th to get the Raccoons as far removed from an insurance run as possible, before Marcos Bruno gave up high flies to deep center to Suzuki and Zamora in the ninth. Reece managed to catch the first for the second out of the inning, but didn’t get Zamora’s. Diéguez hit for the pitcher in Rodgers’ spot, but grounded out to short, as the Raccoons limped away with their first win in over a week. 5-4 Raccoons. Sharp 2-5, 2B; Brady 3-4, BB, RBI; Ingall 3-4, BB; Martin 2-5, 2B, RBI; Rosa 1-2, 2 BB; Guerin (PH) 1-1; Ramirez (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
VAN: CF T. Wilson – LF Trinidad – 3B Suzuki – 1B A. Munoz – RF R. Green – 2B J. Zamora – SS Phillips – C F. Diéguez – P Wentz
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – RF M. Ramirez – CF Brady – LF J. Rodriguez – C Rosa – P Ford

Ford’s dog had apparently eaten his stuff, for he pitched to contact from the start, and it never got any better with him. The Elks scored a run in the second inning, did not score despite ancient Royce Green tripling in the fourth, but got an unearned run on a Martin error in the fifth. The Raccoons got two wimpy singles off Wentz before he had to leave with an injury in the fifth inning. Sharp walked to put two on with two out, but Guerin grounded out on a 3-1 pitch by Leoniedas. While Ford went seven without further incidents, the Coons were just all-out **** and lingered with three singles through seven innings. Bottom 8th, Peter Sanders issued 2-out walks to Concie and Ingall, bringing up Martin, who actually had the spine to drive in a run with a single. Then Ramirez grounded out, and Nordahl gave the run back in the top 9th. Not that Pedro Alvarado needed any support to close this one… 3-1 Canadiens. Ford 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, L (6-15) and 1-2;

In other news

August 16 – DEN INF Jose Correa (.300, 1 HR, 37 RBI) figures to miss a month with an oblique strain.
August 17 – A gem is pitched in Milwaukee, as MIL SP William Lloyd (5-4, 4.70 ERA) spins a 2-hitter in a 1-0 Loggers win over the Miners.
August 18 – A shoulder injury forces TIJ CF/LF Ramón Perez (.240, 11 HR, 58 RBI) onto the DL, where he might remain for five weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Last in runs scored, finally. Also, lost 14 of 17, and going back to June 1, lost 47 of 72.

Corkum was claimed by about 26 teams after being waived (and the Knights were awarded him on Sunday). But nobody wanted to trade for him.

It’s clear what the other 23 GM’s are up to. They want me to step in front of that train.